This disclosure relates the novel materials for use in a solar reactor. In particular, this disclosure relates to materials that are used in reactor beds (fluidized and stabilized) and in beds employed in solar reactors.
Fluidized and stabilized beds (hereinafter beds) comprising magnetic particles are often used to drive high temperature chemical reactions. In order to produce a bed that contains magnetic particles, the magnetic particles are disposed upon a substrate and then sintered together. During the sintering process however, the particles that form the substrate fuse together to produce a clump of a metal oxide that has a very low surface area and that can no longer be fluidized. The FIG. 1 illustrates the results of a sintering process (i.e., a prior art process). In the FIG. 1, it can be seen that powder particles that have magnetic particles disposed thereon are sintered and fuse together to form a clump of a metal oxide that has a very low surface area. This low surface area clump of metal oxide is unsuitable for supporting chemical reactions.
It is therefore desirable to develop methods for manufacturing beds that have a high porosity and surface area, and that can function in a manner similar to other commercially available reactor beds without undergoing sintering and a reduction in surface area as a result of undesirable sintering.